Doug McMasters: I was over to Isaiah chapter six, isaiah six.
Doug McMasters: If you're visiting with us or new here, you can find a Bible in front of you and if you turn to page 600, that'll get you to the first chapter of Isaiah and we'll be in Isaiah chapter six.
Doug McMasters: You just go a few pages further in and you'll find the chapter that we're gonna be looking at today.
Doug McMasters: I also wanna say to you, if you don't have a Bible and you would like a Bible, that Bible in front of you is yours.
Doug McMasters: You can take it home with you.
Doug McMasters: It's a gift from us.
Doug McMasters: We'd love for you to be able to have God's word at home and we've got others we can replace in the pews.
Doug McMasters: But if you don't have a Bible, please take one and consider it a gift from us.
Doug McMasters: If you've already got a Bible, please put it back in the pew from us.
Doug McMasters: If you've already got a Bible, please put it back in the pew.
Doug McMasters: We're not gifting everybody all the time.
Doug McMasters: We find ourselves in Isaiah chapter six and for many of us this is a familiar chapter.
Doug McMasters: Familiar because it brings to us the call of Isaiah to his public ministry as a prophet.
Doug McMasters: Call of Isaiah to his public ministry as a prophet.
Doug McMasters: This is nothing new.
Doug McMasters: As we come into scripture we find other calling narratives in scripture how the Lord dedicated certain people to particular areas of service.
Doug McMasters: We can read about Moses.
Doug McMasters: We can read about Joshua, jeremiah or Ezekiel, others who also have these sort of calling narratives in the midst of the places where we read about them.
Doug McMasters: But there's something unusual about this.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's call to ministry comes six chapters deep into the book.
Doug McMasters: You would think it would be the first thing we read about.
Doug McMasters: In chapter one we're introduced to Isaiah the prophet, we understand how he became a prophet and then we hear his prophecies.
Doug McMasters: Well, that's not how this chapter opens up or this book opens up.
Doug McMasters: We've just covered the first five chapters together of Isaiah and you might have noticed, but there's nothing in those first five chapters that gives us any indication of when those prophecies took place.
Doug McMasters: It's quite possible that the first five chapters of Isaiah are prophecies that took place later in Isaiah's ministry, not at the beginning of them, but they were put at the beginning of the book.
Doug McMasters: So we have to ask ourselves why are those first five chapters there in the beginning and why is Isaiah's calling delayed until this sixth chapter?
Doug McMasters: Well, I believe the reason is, is because the prophecies that sit at the front of Isaiah do a great job of summarizing Israel's problem, the problem of their rebellion, the problem of their deserved judgment and of their great need for redemption and reconciliation with God, and of promises of a hope that that will happen, of promises of a hope that that will happen.
Doug McMasters: And then, chapter 6, comes Isaiah's call to ministry, as a bridge from those first five chapters into the next section of the book.
Doug McMasters: So let's just lay this out very, very quickly.
Doug McMasters: Chapters 1 to 5, israel, a sinful nation, so sinful it raises a question for us that we need answered.
Doug McMasters: How can they ever possibly be aligned to a holy God?
Doug McMasters: That's how sinful and disobedient they are.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 6 gives us an answer to that question that arises.
Doug McMasters: The call of Isaiah as a prophet shows us something of what the people need.
Doug McMasters: What Israel needs is what Isaiah receives, and when we look at this chapter, as we'll do in just a moment, isaiah receives a vision of God, he receives an experience of forgiveness and he receives clarity about his mission in this world.
Doug McMasters: And so what he receives in this chapter is exactly what this sinful nation mentioned in the first five chapters ought to be looking for themselves.
Doug McMasters: But chapter six also is sort of an introduction into the next section that we'll be looking at, and that's chapter seven to 12, where Isaiah has a number of conversations with Ahaz and speaks prophecies into a very concrete situation that the king and the people were going through at the time and instead of receiving the vision of God and the experience of forgiveness and a clarity about their mission in this world, we find Ahaz and the people continue to rebel, and Isaiah 6 speaks about that as well.
Doug McMasters: So Isaiah 6 really does stand not just as a calling of one prophet for us to read and be curious about how he came into the ministry.
Doug McMasters: It stands as an example and a paradigm for how the people of God in that day should view their God and view themselves and view their role in this world.
Doug McMasters: But it also stands for us as the same a paradigm for us to understand that we too, in our generation, need clarity about who God is, clarity about what salvation is and clarity about what our role is in this world.
Doug McMasters: For us to represent the Lord in our generation and for all of the missionaries that we support or send out from our body, these three elements are essential for us to be able to walk wisely in this world, to be able to fulfill our lives in a way that gives God glory.
Doug McMasters: And so this morning, I'd like for us to view these three things as we see this calling of Isaiah bringing to him clarity about God and clarity about salvation, and clarity about his mission.
Doug McMasters: May it give us the same clarity as we go about our lives.
Doug McMasters: So, first of all, I'd like for us to notice that Isaiah gained clarity about God.
Doug McMasters: Let's look at the first verse.
Doug McMasters: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
Doug McMasters: Seraphim were standing above him.
Doug McMasters: Each had six wings, and with two they covered their faces and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew, and one called to another Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of armies.
Doug McMasters: His glory fills the whole earth.
Doug McMasters: The foundations of the doorway shook at the sound of their voices and the temple was filled with smoke.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah receives here a very personal, vivid and powerful meeting with God.
Doug McMasters: He has a firsthand glimpse of the supernatural realm, isaiah as he comes into this, all of his images about what God is like and all of his religious instructions about how to approach God are all suddenly overpowered by the reality of this overwhelming experience as he gains a vision of the awesome presence of God.
Doug McMasters: For Isaiah, this was a shocking, awesome and life-transforming experience, because this vision is what he needed and it is a vision that we need to fulfill our role, just as it was for him to fulfill his role as a prophet.
Doug McMasters: Well, what did he understand about God in this vision?
Doug McMasters: The first thing he understood with clarity about God was God's majesty.
Doug McMasters: With God's majesty, when we come into this, we see an image of God in a courtroom on a throne, and it might be easy for us to project that throne room beyond the known universe, standing over the sphere of everything that's created, into the outer reaches of the third heaven, and there, above and beyond it all, is the throne room of God and the angels and this courtroom.
Doug McMasters: But take a look at the passage, because it gives us a different location.
Doug McMasters: In verse 1, it says the hem of his robe filled the temple, and then in verse 4, the word temple in the CSB is used again, but the Hebrew is a different word.
Doug McMasters: It's house, or the house of the Lord, which is a common term for the temple.
Doug McMasters: You see, the vision setting is not above and beyond and outside all things created.
Doug McMasters: It's right in Jerusalem, in the temple, that Isaiah is capturing this vision, this place where Yahweh, who is, yes, the creator of all things, the ruler of all things, above all things, is actually right in the middle of the sinful people of Judah, he's manifesting his majesty as the sovereign God of Israel.
Doug McMasters: In Israel, the temple complex was made up of three parts.
Doug McMasters: The whole complex had three sections to it.
Doug McMasters: There was the outer courtyard, and in the outer courtyard you would find the bronze sort of basin, large basin, a laver where the priests would wash themselves.
Doug McMasters: You would find the altar where they would make the sacrifices, and then you would go inside that courtroom, into the building, which had two sections itself.
Doug McMasters: There would be, first of all, the entry courtroom of the temple, called the holy place, and there you would find certain pieces of furniture, like the altar of incense and the table of showbread and the menorah or the candlesticks or candle stand.
Doug McMasters: But behind that, behind this imposing curtain, would be another place called the Holy of Holies, and there would be only one thing in there, the Ark of the Covenant, and only one person the high priest would be able to enter into this room but once a year, so the visibility of what was inside that room was a very rare display One person out of the whole nation.
Doug McMasters: In only one day per year did he go in there and only one day per year did he go in there.
Doug McMasters: This is that section that Isaiah sees.
Doug McMasters: He is behind the curtain, he is in the Holy of Holies and he doesn't mention the Ark of the Covenant.
Doug McMasters: Interestingly, he mentions a throne which might be above or replacing the Ark of the Covenant.
Doug McMasters: For all we know, we don't know.
Doug McMasters: And rather than seeing the normal glory of the Lord in between the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant, we see a throne room.
Doug McMasters: We see a throne with the Lord sitting on it and we see the Lord's robes coming out of the Holy of Holies and encompassing the whole temple area, flowing out of the Holy of Holies, out over the holy place, out over the courtyard itself.
Doug McMasters: His robes encompass the whole complex.
Doug McMasters: To accentuate this vision, isaiah speaks and he gives us not a depiction of God.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't say a thing about what God looks like, how glorious His brilliance is, brilliance is.
Doug McMasters: He points us to the angelic creatures that surround God and are praising Him and all the verbs here are in the imperfect, talking about continuous action of an ongoing nature that these seraphim are standing around Him, they're covering themselves and they're calling to one another.
Doug McMasters: There's all this buzz of activity and motion and sound and movement as he gets this vision of God.
Doug McMasters: It's very brief, but it's also describing to us something that's beyond human speech.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is struggling to find the adequate words to capture it all.
Doug McMasters: In this picture that's before him A glorious divine king, the hems of his robes stretching out over the whole complex of the temple, these winged creatures praising God and moving around the building, shaking the cloud filling the whole area.
Doug McMasters: This vision is reaffirming what Isaiah chapter 2 said.
Doug McMasters: This vision is reaffirming what Isaiah chapter 2 said the Lord alone will be exalted.
Doug McMasters: On that day, the pride of mankind will be humbled and human loftiness will be brought low.
Doug McMasters: This is the throne room of the palace, temple of the Lord God, the inner sanctum dedicated for his presence.
Doug McMasters: This is mysterious and this is frightening to Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: The understanding of God for us, however, is more personal and familiar and welcoming, because the scriptures tell us that the glory of God came to us isn't reserved in the place where none of us can reach.
Doug McMasters: And John in his first gospel said the word was made flesh and dwelled among us and we beheld his glory.
Doug McMasters: The glory is the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.
Doug McMasters: The glory of God is revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ, not reserved to a vision in the inner sanctum of the Holy of Holies where no one could go into, but is before us all in the person of Christ.
Doug McMasters: This majesty is something that Isaiah is capturing and it's causing him to quake and shake, like the building is quaking and shaking.
Doug McMasters: It's causing his mind to be filled with cloud, like the whole building is filled with cloud.
Doug McMasters: The movement of the angels and the amazement of the sight is causing him to wonder at how he could be in this very presence of God himself.
Doug McMasters: And he learned something more, not just about God's majesty, but about God's transcendence, his holy otherness to the rest of creation, because he listens to what these angelic beings say and they cry out holy, holy, holy.
Doug McMasters: Now they didn't just stop at three, they kept on saying it.
Doug McMasters: In Hebrew language, to repeat something is to accentuate something, to make it stronger.
Doug McMasters: This is why Solomon in Ecclesiastes says vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
Doug McMasters: He says it twice in order to drive the point home.
Doug McMasters: Twice in order to drive the point home, these angelic beings are saying holy, holy, holy.
Doug McMasters: Just so unholy people like us can understand that God is ultimately different than us all.
Doug McMasters: He is transcendent in his person.
Doug McMasters: This is the essence of God's nature.
Doug McMasters: Supreme revelation of God is to speak about his holiness, because it tells us that he is different than we are.
Doug McMasters: He is separate from us, that there's nothing on earth by which we can compare to him.
Doug McMasters: Everything is a contrast in some measure.
Doug McMasters: But there's something else here.
Doug McMasters: He sees more than just his majesty and his transcendence, his holy otherness.
Doug McMasters: He also sees his eminence or his closeness.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at the verse it tells us here, in verse 4, the foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices and the temple was filled with smoke.
Doug McMasters: When we read the rest of Scripture about the temple being filled with smoke, it's associated with God's appearance or God's presence in that place.
Doug McMasters: Yes, somewhat to conceal our eyes from that presence, but also to reveal by very, very tangible way that he's there, that he's there.
Doug McMasters: So this God who is wholly separate from us wholly different than we are.
Doug McMasters: God, who is wholly separate from us, wholly different than we are, glorious in his majesty, wholly beyond compare, is here.
Doug McMasters: Here that his remoteness is not aloofness, that his separateness is not disdain for us, that the fact that he's different from us doesn't mean he doesn't care about us, that he's here.
Doug McMasters: He's here.
Doug McMasters: And this is why, in chapter 12, isaiah says the great God, the Holy One of Israel, is among you, is among you.
Doug McMasters: We'll talk about that more in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: But there's something else that he receives about God here that God is sovereign, that he is ruler.
Doug McMasters: He's not just above us all, he's with us all, but he's over us all.
Doug McMasters: Majestic and sovereign king, take a look at verse 1.
Doug McMasters: I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne.
Doug McMasters: He's on a royal throne.
Doug McMasters: And then take a look at verse 5.
Doug McMasters: I said woe is me, for I'm ruined because I'm a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips because my eyes have seen the king, the king.
Doug McMasters: But then take a look also at the last phrase of verse 5, the Lord of armies.
Doug McMasters: He is ruler of all powers, seen and unseen.
Doug McMasters: He is the king of everything, the earthly kings of empires on this earth would have been the most powerful ruling authorities of that day.
Doug McMasters: And so God here reveals himself as the great sovereign king over everything in this place, everything in this place, and his kingship draws together the fact that he's the creator, that he's the protector, that he's the savior, that he's the lawgiver, that he's the warrior in chief, that he is the judge.
Doug McMasters: All of this is wrapped up in this word king, king.
Doug McMasters: He's the king of creation, he's the king of powers, he's the king of comfort, he's the king who gives his word out that must be obeyed.
Doug McMasters: He is the one to whom all of us must answer.
Doug McMasters: He is the king of judgment.
Doug McMasters: He is the king of judgment, he is the king.
Doug McMasters: So Isaiah experiences this in a moment, and all of his thoughts about how to approach God are just gone.
Doug McMasters: At the moment.
Doug McMasters: All of those thoughts that he had about what God must be like are just wrapped up in the realization of this image of God's presence, and he comes aware of the fact that he is before God himself.
Doug McMasters: Let me talk for a moment about this eminence part, the fact that God is with us.
Doug McMasters: Look at what the seraphims say about him in verse 3.
Doug McMasters: Holy, holy, holy, separate, separate, separate.
Doug McMasters: Holy other, holy other holy other is the Lord, god of armies.
Doug McMasters: His glory fills the earth.
Doug McMasters: What do they mean?
Doug McMasters: That this holy other God could have his glory fill the earth?
Doug McMasters: How could these angelic beings claim that this sinless God, who is different than us all, could be among a sinful and rebellious world?
Doug McMasters: This is exactly the question we should be asking ourselves.
Doug McMasters: How could this God be here when we are the way we are?
Doug McMasters: Scriptures answer that question In that beautiful prologue of the Gospel of John, where John steps out as a narrator of a story and begins to speak before he pulls the curtain back to show you the drama of redemption and he says something about what you're about to watch and he says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Doug McMasters: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Doug McMasters: All things were made by Him and without Him there was not anything made that was made.
Doug McMasters: And he begins to talk about this one who is the Word and he says that he is the light, come into this world, that this Word was made flesh, not just appeared above us in the skies, not just shown in the middle of a building like the temple, but came in human form and we beheld his glory.
Doug McMasters: The glory is the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.
Doug McMasters: How could this holy God be here?
Doug McMasters: He came here in human flesh.
Doug McMasters: That's how close he is to us, and John, in his prologue, said that he is the true light that gives light to everyone coming into the world.
Doug McMasters: He was in the world and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him.
Doug McMasters: He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.
Doug McMasters: John, after he opens up the curtain of the gospel of John and allows us to see the movements of this one, we've been introduced to the Word made flesh.
Doug McMasters: We read about his life as Jesus goes from childhood to adulthood, as he goes through his ministry in and out of Jerusalem and as he comes to the very cusp of his death at the cross cusp of his death at the cross.
Doug McMasters: In John, chapter 12, we find the last public ministry of Jesus, the last things that he will say to the people, and there he says the light will be with you only a little while longer.
Doug McMasters: Walk while you have the light so that darkness doesn't overtake you.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is calling to the people recognize who's here, recognize what's available to you, come to the light while the light is near you.
Doug McMasters: And John takes back up the narrator role and in John 12, verse 37 says even though he had performed many signs and many miracles in their presence, they did not believe in him.
Doug McMasters: This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, and he quotes Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 6.
Doug McMasters: Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Doug McMasters: Isaiah 53.
Doug McMasters: They were unable to believe because Isaiah also said he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes or understand with their hearts and turn.
Doug McMasters: And I would heal them see with their eyes or understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him.
Doug McMasters: The NIV renders that word his glory as Jesus' glory and spoke about him.
Doug McMasters: That Isaiah here is capturing a glimpse of God.
Doug McMasters: Here he's getting a view of who Jesus actually is the holy, separate God who is here?
Doug McMasters: Who is here?
Doug McMasters: Who is here Now?
Doug McMasters: What is the significance of this vision for Isaiah and what is the significance of this vision for us?
Doug McMasters: Well, isaiah is about to step into his prophetic role.
Doug McMasters: His life has a very narrowed focus to be a spokesman, a mouthpiece for God among this generation in which he lives.
Doug McMasters: And if he didn't understand God fully, he would be vulnerable to the desires what they say about themselves or what they say about God than he would about what God says about himself.
Doug McMasters: He was about to go into a culture that was antagonistic.
Doug McMasters: They had their own views about who God was.
Doug McMasters: They had their own views about what it meant to be right with this God that they had conjured up in their mind, and they had their own ideas about what were comforts and priorities about life itself.
Doug McMasters: Just like we do, just like our generation has, the people of God were coming out of a season of prosperity and peace.
Doug McMasters: Uzziah the king was a king who reigned a long time over a fairly peaceful era, and so they were very comfortable with the way life was at the moment, not realizing it was about soon to plunge into uncertainty and trouble and to have a prophet speak to them and say that they were sinful and that they were in danger was not something they wanted to hear at the moment.
Doug McMasters: Would Isaiah stand true to his calling?
Doug McMasters: Would Isaiah be able to continue to speak to a culture that was antagonistic, to people that were unwilling to listen?
Doug McMasters: Well, only if he knew who sent him, only if he had a real understanding of who God is.
Doug McMasters: When the Apostle Paul spoke to Timothy at the end of Paul's life, he told Timothy to take a hold of the charge to preach the gospel, to minister the word faithfully.
Doug McMasters: And Paul had this same notion that Isaiah is capturing in this vision.
Doug McMasters: And listen how Paul speaks to Timothy about discharging his responsibilities as a church leader and notice how he starts with an orientation to God as the ultimate aim for Timothy to keep in mind as he goes about ministering day to day to people.
Doug McMasters: He said in 2 Timothy 4, I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who's going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom.
Doug McMasters: You see that he fixes Timothy on God before he fixes Timothy on his responsibilities.
Doug McMasters: Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, correct rebuke and encourage with great patience and teaching.
Doug McMasters: And then he tells him you need to be fixed on who God is and you need to be fixed on your responsibilities, because you're going into an environment where, as he says, the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear.
Doug McMasters: They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
Doug McMasters: But you exercise self-control in everything.
Doug McMasters: Endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Doug McMasters: In order to strengthen Timothy for the hard labor of speaking to people with itchy ear syndrome, he needed to remember who called him into the ministry and who he was going to answer to about that ministry.
Doug McMasters: And so when we face our culture, when we face our generation, where do we start?
Doug McMasters: We start by understanding God.
Doug McMasters: That's how we start, because understanding God is necessary for a solid foundation to life and our mission in this world, and it will be tested.
Doug McMasters: It will be tested.
Doug McMasters: I sat in a worship or after a worship service with someone who spoke directly to me with anger about what I preached, and you know, sometimes that's very, very oriented.
Doug McMasters: Sometimes I say things I shouldn't say behind the pulpit.
Doug McMasters: But that day I did.
Doug McMasters: What I gave was an exposition of God's Word and it was clear.
Doug McMasters: And this guy was arguing about the truth of Scripture.
Doug McMasters: He didn't like the messenger, that was me, but he didn't like the truth of God and he tried to strong-arm me into changing my message.
Doug McMasters: And I said to him that day I said, sir, with all due respect, I'm going to go before a living God and I'm going to give an account of my ministry to him and I'm going to tell you one thing I'm going to stand before him and I am not going to say to him that I was more afraid of you than I was of him.
Doug McMasters: I'm not going to do that than I was of him.
Doug McMasters: I'm not going to do that.
Doug McMasters: We all need to be in that posture Because there are going to be forces that are going to say look, I don't like what you're saying, I don't like how you're living, I don't like the decisions you're making.
Doug McMasters: They make me feel bad, they don't accord to my way of thinking and unless we have a firm grasp of who God is and what God has to say, we might bend to that pressure.
Doug McMasters: He needed clarity about his God in order to fulfill his ministry.
Doug McMasters: We do too, but let's go on.
Doug McMasters: He needed clarity about salvation also.
Doug McMasters: In verse 5, he starts to see himself and he starts to understand, in relationship to this God, that he's just viewed, that there is something wrong, and it's him.
Doug McMasters: And he sees his own worthiness and terror strikes his heart.
Doug McMasters: He realizes he's come close, and too close for comfort, to the majesty of the glory of God, and he's struck here, not by his humanity, not by his mortality, but by his sinfulness, and he cries out woe is me.
Doug McMasters: He's uttering this cry of woe about himself, realizing that he's in a position of threat, that his life is in danger, that he is liable to destruction because of who he is and who God is.
Doug McMasters: Now this woe in chapter 6 joins the woes of chapter 5.
Doug McMasters: In chapter 5, there are a lot of woes.
Doug McMasters: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
Doug McMasters: Woe to those who consider themselves wise and judge themselves clever.
Doug McMasters: Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine.
Doug McMasters: Woe to those who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
Doug McMasters: Woe to them.
Doug McMasters: Woe is me, woe is me.
Doug McMasters: I'm ruined.
Doug McMasters: He only got there in a knowledge about himself, once he understood who God was, and he unites his fate to that of the peoples.
Doug McMasters: I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.
Doug McMasters: Why did he need this understanding?
Doug McMasters: Because if he didn't realize how sinful he was, it would be easy to go woe is you and woe is you, and woe is you and woe are you.
Doug McMasters: I've done my job as a preacher.
Doug McMasters: Well, just God, burn them, let them be judged.
Doug McMasters: It would be easy for him to get into the position of thinking that God's judgments ought to be embodied in his attitude.
Doug McMasters: And how self-righteous and priggish is that.
Doug McMasters: How hypocritical, actually, because anybody who would have examined Isaiah's life would have said oh yeah, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
Doug McMasters: It would have been easy for him to stand in that position of arrogance and judgmentalism.
Doug McMasters: He can't do that anymore, because once he got a vision of God, that turned into an understanding of himself.
Doug McMasters: This is now something completely different, because we are in a place of woe, we are sinful people and he understood that he needed to speak to people as equal with them and not as if he were equal with God.
Doug McMasters: And this is why, in the book of Titus it tells us this that we are to be gentle to all people.
Doug McMasters: And he said this.
Doug McMasters: He said submit to rulers to obey, be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, to be kind to always show gentleness to all people.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because we too were once foolish and disobedient, and deceived and enslaved by various passions and pleasures.
Doug McMasters: Why am I to be gentle?
Doug McMasters: Because there's the gentleness of God, our Savior, who came to us to save us, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy".
Doug McMasters: And sadly, we can be too much like the judgmental, arrogant, self-righteous person, and we need to capture the vision that Isaiah had of who God is and who he is before holy God, to be able to rightly speak the truth to our generation.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah receives also a recognition that there's only the hope of this salvation.
Doug McMasters: This clarity of salvation starts with an understanding of himself.
Doug McMasters: But as he's sitting there mourning and grieving his sinfulness, realizing that he has seen the king and doesn't deserve to be in his presence, verse 6 says one of the seraphim flew to me and his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs and he touched my mouth with it and said now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.
Doug McMasters: And your sin is atoned for.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah confessed his sinfulness and God reached out, not to judge him but to forgive him.
Doug McMasters: Isn't that wonderful.
Doug McMasters: This is an act of God's grace.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah didn't do anything to get this forgiveness.
Doug McMasters: He was sitting there saying I can't fix this because I can't fix me.
Doug McMasters: He didn't offer any sacrifices.
Doug McMasters: He didn't promise to turn over a new leaf and do something different tomorrow.
Doug McMasters: He had no power to save himself from this ruin.
Doug McMasters: God moved.
Doug McMasters: God moved to remove his guilt and he took a coal from the altar, the place of sacrifice, and this picture touched the tongue of Isaiah with it.
Doug McMasters: These weren't magical coals.
Doug McMasters: This is a figurative vision to represent this marvelous, magnificent act of grace on God's part to forgive him.
Doug McMasters: And he tells him your iniquity is removed, your iniquity is removed.
Doug McMasters: There's no reason for you to be punished now.
Doug McMasters: Your guilt is gone, it has been atoned for.
Doug McMasters: Something has accomplished the needed peace between you and me, and I'm now applying it to you.
Doug McMasters: You're forgiven.
Doug McMasters: Sin now no longer separates Isaiah from God.
Doug McMasters: Notice the progress.
Doug McMasters: He understands first of all that he's sinful, which starts with understanding who God is, and then he recognizes that he is liable to judgment for it and admits it, and then God moves to deal with it.
Doug McMasters: This is salvation.
Doug McMasters: Let me encourage you right now, in the light of what we've understood about God here in this passage of Scripture, that he is holy and other than all of us, and he is the one who will judge all people, all of us.
Doug McMasters: The one who will judge all people, all of us, that you are to compare yourself, not in relationship to your mirror mighty fine looking guy in that mirror.
Doug McMasters: You're not to examine yourself in light of, you know, the worst in society.
Doug McMasters: I'm better than the murderers or those that are in prison.
Doug McMasters: You're not to compare yourself to the rest of your family and that crazy uncle that you're going to have turkey with in a couple of days.
Doug McMasters: You're not to compare yourself to your peer group.
Doug McMasters: You're not to compare yourself to anybody but him, and in that comparison none of us stand.
Doug McMasters: To view ourself in the light of the awesome majesty of God.
Doug McMasters: Almighty is to come to the place of reality about ourselves and to stand as Isaiah did, concerned, even terror-stricken.
Doug McMasters: But instead of running away, let me encourage you to run to God.
Doug McMasters: I know it sounds counterintuitive the first impulse when you've been caught out is to get away.
Doug McMasters: But don't do that, because instead of running away from the one that you've offended here, isaiah finds the solution as the one who was offended, comes to him and meets him with grace and forgiveness and not judgment.
Doug McMasters: Offer yourself to him as you are sinful and needy, not perfect, and hear him say you're forgiven, your sins are atoned for.
Doug McMasters: See yourself as you are a sinner, admit it before God and receive the gift offered in Jesus Christ as he gives himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sins as we enter into this world.
Doug McMasters: That is our message.
Doug McMasters: This was the answer to the problem of the people of Israel.
Doug McMasters: It's the answer to the problems that are in our world.
Doug McMasters: If we don't have a firm grip on the importance of salvation and the forgiveness of God in Christ, we're going to spend all day spinning our wheels on issues, yes, that are important but not ultimately primary.
Doug McMasters: In this world, we cannot supplant salvation with giving money to the poor or feeding the hungry, or educating the uneducated, or giving health to the sick, as important as those things are, because one day that poor person will meet the living God, one day that uneducated person will meet a holy God.
Doug McMasters: One day that uneducated person will meet a holy God.
Doug McMasters: One day, all of those people that we have ministered things to will find themselves standing before God to give an account.
Doug McMasters: And we don't want to be saying, well, I gave him some bread last week and forgot to offer him the bread of life.
Doug McMasters: And so, as Isaiah realizes with clarity who God is and with clarity what salvation is about, he now has understanding of the clarity of his mission.
Doug McMasters: He now has understanding of the clarity of his mission.
Doug McMasters: I heard a voice of the Lord's asking who will I send?
Doug McMasters: Who will go for us?
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah pops up here I am, send me.
Doug McMasters: I think I'm ready.
Doug McMasters: Now.
Doug McMasters: He's not coerced into service.
Doug McMasters: He makes a ready response.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't know exactly what he's going to be saying, where he's going, how long it's going to last all of this, but he's ready to go.
Doug McMasters: And God replies to him and says say to the people keep listening, but don't understand.
Doug McMasters: Keep looking, but do not perceive.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's like okay, you mean my message is going to be one that is going to dull ears rather than open them.
Doug McMasters: You mean, my message is going to be one that is going to dull ears rather than open them.
Doug McMasters: That's going to close eyes rather than open them.
Doug McMasters: That's going to but be committed to Scripture nonetheless, isaiah, tell them to keep listening, tell them to keep looking, tell them what they need to hear, even if they don't want to hear it, even though they may not comprehend it.
Doug McMasters: You need to be committed to the truth of speaking that message.
Doug McMasters: Just like Paul said, preach the word, even though they're going to have itching ear syndrome and will give themselves to fables.
Doug McMasters: Preach the word.
Doug McMasters: Don't try to coddle them in their error.
Doug McMasters: Continue to give them the truth.
Doug McMasters: And he tells him to be prepared for suffering.
Doug McMasters: In the midst of this, he said you're preaching in verse 10.
Doug McMasters: It's going to make the minds of these people dull.
Doug McMasters: It's going to deafen their ears.
Doug McMasters: It's going to blind their eyes.
Doug McMasters: It's not going to be an easy ministry, isaiah.
Doug McMasters: These people who have repeatedly refused to follow me are going to repeatedly refuse to hear you, and what you're offering to them is going to be a confirmation of their judgment for most of them.
Doug McMasters: And this is why Paul said we're a savor, we're a fragrance of Christ to everyone.
Doug McMasters: Some the smell of death, to those who will be judged, but to others there's a fragrance of life, to those who are called.
Doug McMasters: There's a fragrance of life to those who are called as we step into our mission in life.
Doug McMasters: Not everybody's going to care to hear what we have to say, but be committed to it.
Doug McMasters: The long term.
Doug McMasters: In verse 11, isaiah asked the question until when, Lord, until I get tired of people always answering me back, until I run out of energy.
Doug McMasters: Until when, lord, until the city lies in ruins without inhabitants, fulfill your duty.
Doug McMasters: Or, to quote Bill Belichick, do your job.
Doug McMasters: Just do what you have to do Now.
Doug McMasters: At first this sounds very hard and it is because there are going to be a lot of people who are hardening their hearts, moving toward judgment.
Doug McMasters: But there's something else in here.
Doug McMasters: In verse 13, the Lord in verse 12, will drive people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land.
Doug McMasters: But he does give a glimmer of hope.
Doug McMasters: It's a small glimmer, but it's a glimmer.
Doug McMasters: A tenth will remain in the land.
Doug McMasters: There's going to be people that are going to hear.
Doug McMasters: Won't be a lot, won't be everyone, certainly It'll be a very small minority, but there's going to be people who are hearing Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: Your ministry will bear fruit.
Doug McMasters: Small as it might seem, it's going to be fruit.
Doug McMasters: These words that Isaiah hears here are the very exact words that all four gospels repeat, and they repeat them in one of two places.
Doug McMasters: And they repeat them in one of two places.
Doug McMasters: The synoptic gospels Matthew, mark and Luke repeat them as Jesus finishes the parable of the sower and when Jesus talks about the four soils.
Doug McMasters: Three of them are unfruitful soils.
Doug McMasters: Three of them are unfruitful soils, but there is one soil that receives the word and grows to fruitfulness the stump that's talked about here in verse 13, the 10th.
Doug McMasters: There is going to be life in that stump.
Doug McMasters: There is going to be a holy seed bearing fruit.
Doug McMasters: It is going to be those people that hear the message of Jesus who are delivered.
Doug McMasters: This is why the Apostle Paul said I'm an Israelite and I've believed on the Lord Jesus that there is a people.
Doug McMasters: There is a people coming out of Israel.
Doug McMasters: There are people that are going to grow out of what looks like a dead stump.
Doug McMasters: It's going to begin with the branch, who is the Savior himself, and then there's going to be his people that believe his message, and then there's going to be his people that believe his message.
Doug McMasters: And then, in John 12, john speaks these words, the last words of Christ's public ministry and I've quoted them already where he says that those who believe on Christ, though many won't, are going to be the part of that holy seed.
Doug McMasters: That here.
Doug McMasters: So this passage, it's not just a curiosity passage, isn't it interesting how Isaiah got called to the ministry of being a prophet?
Doug McMasters: It's a paradigm.
Doug McMasters: It's a paradigm for the people, because the people of Israel, as Isaiah will say later, are meant to be the instruments of God, as mediators of his truth to the rest of the nations, his truth to the rest of the nations.
Doug McMasters: How would they do that?
Doug McMasters: Only by following what they hear in Isaiah 6, by getting to know who God is with clarity, his majestic nature, his sovereign rule, the fact that he's wholly other.
Doug McMasters: And yet here, the only way they can do that is if they realize, in light of who he is, that they need his forgiveness, they need his salvation.
Doug McMasters: And the only way they can fulfill that mission is when their heart is spurred with a sense of grateful return to the God who's forgiven them, who's willing to say here I am, send me, I'm ready to go.
Doug McMasters: What do I need to say?
Doug McMasters: How long do I need to be there?
Doug McMasters: I'll do it, even if it means suffering.
Doug McMasters: And this passage stands as a paradigm for us as we engage our culture, as we engage our generation, as we speak to our neighbor, as we talk about Christ in our house.
Doug McMasters: It has to start with the knowledge of the living God.
Doug McMasters: It moves from knowing his forgiveness and salvation and then it motivates us for service, and then it motivates us for service.
Doug McMasters: To miss any of those will turn us aside, to other priorities and wrong attitudes.
Doug McMasters: But, as we understand this rightly, we will be humble and we will be eager to stand for the living God among a people just like us, people with unclean lips who need the same Savior who's come to us.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray together.
Doug McMasters: Father, we thank you for this word and, lord, we want to hear it well.
Doug McMasters: We don't want to be those who are hearing and do not perceive.
Doug McMasters: To hear it well.
Doug McMasters: We don't want to be those who are hearing and do not perceive.
Doug McMasters: We do not want to be those who are always looking but don't see.
Doug McMasters: Lord, we pray that your word would implant itself in our hearts and, lord, I pray for any of those that are here this morning, who don't know you, who don't understand salvation.
Doug McMasters: I pray, father, that this word of yours will awaken them to the realization of their need, as they have been brought to a revelation of yourself, as they've been brought face to face with just how holy you are and how unholy they are.
Doug McMasters: And we pray, father, that the grace that you showed to Isaiah will be displayed to them.
Doug McMasters: And we pray, father, that they would be longing to look to Christ for deliverance and saying touch my lips with the coals of the sacrifice and say to me my sins are forgiven.
Doug McMasters: Say to me that my iniquity has been atoned for.
Doug McMasters: Oh Lord, bring them to that point, father.
Doug McMasters: We pray that in all these ways we might give you praise, and we ask this in Christ's name, amen.